Diplomatic Text
My Dear Mrs Dickenson
Many Thanks for your kind
letter & inquiries. I have not yet any good
accounts to send you of Mrs Cathcart
except that she is now tolerably well
the rest of us are perfectly so. For the
present I am of course a Prisoner & indeed
for some Time past have been so, & when I
might have escaped some thing or other
always made me procrastinate my constant
intention of coming your way, but that
happineʃs I hope I shall soon have.
What gives me great satisfaction is that
you expreʃs yourself stout & well & equal
to the ball at Woburn. Pray remember me
most kindly to Miʃs Dickenson & tell her
I should have the greatest pleasure in
meeting her but that one little requisite
is an invitation, an article I am not
poʃseʃsed of which I rather wonder at,
but under existing circumstances it would
probably be of no use to me. As for my
Daughter we took her to Stowe last year
as it was a peculiar sort of thing, but
she is much too young to go any where
else. Correspondence between my Sister
& myself is rather an uncommon event
as we are both much addicted to silence
the last letter went from hence & the
last account I had of her she was as
usual, she is never you know what she
calls well & I beleive very much averse
to writing which can be the only
cause of her silence to you. My principal
anxiety is on Colonel Grahams account
who was very recently if not now with
General Castanos.[1] The aspect of affairs
in Spain is dismal beyond imagination
& holds out a prospect of general misfortune
of which I much fear we shall not escape
a share. I united the hands of Mr
Hamilton & Miʃs H Wynne[2] on Monday he
is a Writer to the Signet,[3] brother to Mr
Hamilton of Gilchrist --- near Lanark
who married Miʃs Campbel of Scha ---
He is of good repute & certainly good
figure but not what I should consider
as so very preeminent. I expect my
Son next week & hope or at least suppose
Xmas day may paʃs over uninterrupted
soon after I hope to write to you again
& in the mean while with kindest
remembrance to Mr Dickenson I remain
Dear Mrs Dickenson your
very Affect Cousin
AH Cathcart
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------------------------------------------------------------[4]
Mrs Dickenson[5] [6]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzard
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red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Francisco Javier Castaños Aragorri Urioste y Olavide, Count of Castaños y Aragones, 1st Duke of Baylen (1758-1852).
2. Probably James Hamilton, Scottish advocate who bought Kames Castle in 1810, and Frances Harriet Wynne (1786-1860).
3. A member of The Society of Writers to Her Majesty's Signet, a private society of Scottish solicitors.
4. Several lines of scribbled-out text appear above and below address when unfolded, written upside down.
5. Postmark ‘STONE[Y STRATFO]RD’ above address panel.
6. A large manuscript number ‘5’ in black ink is written to the left of the address, denoting postage due.
Normalised Text
My Dear Mrs Dickenson
Many Thanks for your kind
letter & inquiries. I have not yet any good
accounts to send you of Mrs Cathcart
except that she is now tolerably well
the rest of us are perfectly so. For the
present I am of course a Prisoner & indeed
for some Time past have been so, & when I
might have escaped some thing or other
always made me procrastinate my constant
intention of coming your way, but that
happiness I hope I shall soon have.
What gives me great satisfaction is that
you express yourself stout & well & equal
to the ball at Woburn. Pray remember me
most kindly to Miss Dickenson & tell her
I should have the greatest pleasure in
meeting her but that one little requisite
is an invitation, an article I am not
possessed of which I rather wonder at,
but under existing circumstances it would
probably be of no use to me. As for my
Daughter we took her to Stowe last year
as it was a peculiar sort of thing, but
she is much too young to go any where
else. Correspondence between my Sister
& myself is rather an uncommon event
as we are both much addicted to silence
the last letter went from hence & the
last account I had of her she was as
usual, she is never you know what she
calls well & I believe very much averse
to writing which can be the only
cause of her silence to you. My principal
anxiety is on Colonel Grahams account
who was very recently if not now with
General Castanos. The aspect of affairs
in Spain is dismal beyond imagination
& holds out a prospect of general misfortune
of which I much fear we shall not escape
a share. I united the hands of Mr
Hamilton & Miss Harriet Wynne on Monday he
is a Writer to the Signet, brother to Mr
Hamilton of Gilchrist --- near Lanark
who married Miss Campbel of Scha ---
He is of good repute & certainly good
figure but not what I should consider
as so very preeminent. I expect my
Son next week & hope or at least suppose
Christmas day may pass over uninterrupted
soon after I hope to write to you again
& in the mean while with kindest
remembrance to Mr Dickenson I remain
Dear Mrs Dickenson your
very Affectionate Cousin
Archibald Hamilton Cathcart
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Mrs Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
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quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Reverend Archibald Hamilton Cathcart to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/5/1/6
Correspondence Details
Sender: Archibald Hamilton Cathcart
Place sent: Wolverton, Buckinghamshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: c.1809
when 1809 (precision: medium)
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Rev. Hon. Archibald Hamilton Cathcart to Mary Hamilton. The letter relates to family news about his wife, sister and daughter. It also relates to the bleak situation in Spain (a reference to the Peninsular War) and his worry for Colonel Graham [Colonel Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (1748-1843), Cathcart's brother-in-law].
Length: 1 sheet, 413 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2014/15 and 2015/16 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.
Research assistant: Donald Alasdair Morrison, undergraduate student, University of Manchester
Transliterator: Emma Nabbs, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted November 2014)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 2 November 2021